Donations Pour In for Family of Slain Officer : Simi Valley: Nearly a month after Michael Clark was killed in a gunfight, the trust fund for his wife and infant son moves past $71,000.

Hands keep reaching out to the widow of slain Simi Valley Police Officer Michael Clark.

Nearly a month after Clark was killed in a gunfight with a disturbed man, the trust fund for his wife Jenifer and infant son Bayley has reached $71,287.

Gifts pour in without a lull:

Children send carwash proceeds and city employees sacrifice vacation pay.

Bookkeepers offer free tax preparation and Moorpark women offer free housecleaning.

There are $2 checks and $1,500 pass-the-hat collections taken up at police agencies around California.

“It is so gratifying and so heart-wrenching,” said Simi Valley City Councilwoman Barbara Williamson, a bank official overseeing the Michael Frederick Clark Trust Fund. “You just . . . see how these people are pouring their hearts out to this family, it’s just incredible.”

Clark once patrolled the San Fernando Valley as a Los Angeles police officer in the rough-and-tumble Devonshire Division. But he joined the Simi Valley Police Department in May, seeking a safer lifestyle for his family.

On Aug. 4, he was called out to check on the welfare of 48-year-old Daniel Allan Tuffree, a reportedly suicidal social studies teacher.

As Clark and partners Michael Pearce and Sgt. Tony Anzilotti tried to calm the teacher down, Tuffree opened fire.

Wounded in the arm and back, Clark returned fire as he went down, police said, but he later died. Tuffree is being held on a variety of charges that include killing a police officer, which could mean the death penalty if convicted.

After Clark’s death, friends and fellow officers immediately launched the trust fund to help Jenifer, his former high school sweetheart and now the widowed mother of a 5-month-old son.

Letters came in from throughout Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley, offering sympathy and support, and they are still arriving, Williamson said.

“One here is from a lady in West Hills . . . [who sent] a picture of her 8-month-old child,” Williamson said. “Another mother wrote [that] she tried to come to the funeral services, but she was so overcome by emotions that she had to turn around and go back home. She took up a collection at work, [raised] $170, and she sent it in.”

Cards and letters for Jenifer Clark also continue to spill into the Simi Valley Police Station, police union head Blair Summey said.

“Every couple of days, I just take over boxes of letters” to her house, said Summey, president of the Simi Valley Police Officers Assn.

“The community has been fantastic,” Summey said. “I know it’s been a tremendous support both to Jenifer and the entire Clark family. I mean, people from every walk of life have just been offering anything and everything they can to help her.”

Children in one Simi Valley neighborhood held a carwash last week and sent in the proceeds--all in coins, Summey said.

The Marine Corps has set up a scholarship fund for Bayley, whose father served in the corps before becoming a policeman.

A massage therapist offered free massages. A doctor extended free medical care for Bayley. A group of Moorpark women suggested they could help with housecleaning.

By Friday afternoon, 109 Simi Valley city employees had signed up to donate 1,013 hours of vacation pay to Clark’s family--a sum that will not be calculated until next week, Assistant City Manager Laura Herron said.

“Every day I come in, I have a pile of messages from people that are wanting to do benefits and functions and inquiring is there anything they can do for Jenifer or her family,” Summey said. “It just amazes me. It tells me how deeply this has impacted our whole community, not just the Police Department.”

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FYI

The trust fund for Officer Clark’s wife, Jenifer, and infant son has been set up at the main branch of Simi Valley Bank. Checks can be made out to the Michael Clark Trust Fund and sent to Simi Valley Bank, 1475 E. Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley 93065.